Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 

RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides compassionate to all living beings. (M 41) One practices thus: “Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings.” (MN 8) This is something that leads to the welfare and happiness of a person in this present life: good friendship. Here, one associates with people—whether young but of mature virtue, or old and of mature virtue—who are accomplished in trust, integrity, generosity, and wisdom; one converses with them and engages in discussion with them. Insofar as they are accomplished (in these things), one emulates their accomplishments. (AN 8.54)

Reflection Learning to live in harmony with other people is a tremendously valuable skill, and like any skill it can be learned through practice. What is required is a basic commitment to causing no harm, followed by the regular cultivation of gentle and kindly behavior. One important element emphasized here is to choose carefully those you associate with. Good friends are a precious resource and are to be cultivated as a form of practice. Daily Practice Just as you get better at tennis by playing with people better than you, so also you become a more virtuous person by associating with people of “mature virtue,” regardless of their age. Seek out people of integrity, generosity, and wisdom whom you can trust and allow their noble qualities to rub off on you. Learn from others how to be a better person and thereby also become a teacher to others by example. Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Be Kind to Fear

 Perhaps we can’t really be prepared for suffering, but we can approach fear of suffering in a different way. Fear, with its shoulders of stone and pounding heart, deserves to be met with kindness. 

Phoebe Myers, “Living with Bears”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // PERSEID METEOR SHOWER

 

---

2017 -

Today is the peak of the PERSEID METEOR SHOWER. a prolific meteor shower. associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids are called so because the point they appear to be coming from, called the radiant, is in the constellation of Perseus. However, they can be spotted all around the sky. Because of the positioning of Swift-Tuttle's orbit, Perseids are mostly visible on the northern hemisphere.

The shower is visible from mid-July each year, but the bulk of its activity falls between August 8 and 14 with a peak on August 12. During the peak, rates of a hundred or more meteors per hour can be registered.

Meteor showers can be seen when Earth moves through a meteor stream. The stream in this case is called the Perseid cloud and it stretches along the orbit of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The cloud is composed of particles ejected by the comet as it passed by the Sun. Most of the dust in the cloud today is approximately a thousand years old.

However, there is also a relatively young filament of dust in the stream that boiled off the comet in 1862. The approximate rate of meteors originating from this filament is much higher than normal. The famous Perseid meteor shower has been observed for about 2000 years, with the first known information on these meteors coming from the far east. In early Europe, the Perseids came to be known as the "tears of St. Lawrence." To experience the Perseid shower in its full, one should observe in the dark of a clear moonless night, from a point far outside any large cities, where stars are not dimmed by light pollution.

---

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|